Hey Diddle Diddle
by kari shishi
Summary: If you ever wondered what the meaning of this famous nursery rhyme is, this story is one way I saw it, the story behind Hey Diddle Diddle. The characters are whoever you want it to be.


There was something to the night as the melancholy tune drifted through the alleyways. Kat sat on the roof as she usually did; one leg folded beneath her the other bent up to support her against the steep incline of the terracotta tiles. She rested the fiddle across her shoulder and moved the bow with such ease. Her eyes were closed as she played her song. In the darkness it was hard to see the silent streak running down her cheeks. It was sad to watch, it was sad to listen, but every night she sat and every night she played, and every night she cried.

The sadness of her fiddle made the cool winter nights that much cooler and even near a fireplace there was no warmth where the melody could be heard, the lonely Kat playing her heart out on a lonely fiddle. But why she played such a solemn and cold tune, why she sat on the cold rooftops by night weeping in all silence but the song, no one could say.

The truth rests some years ago in a tale so full of passion that the chill from the song isn't for the lack of fire, but the fact that it absorbs it all in last hopes of warming her. The closest thing she has to an embrace.

Kat was always trying to be fun and loud in hopes of bringing joy to the people around her. The truth is she was always lonely but, for the sake of her mother, Cow, she isolated herself from her family, to protect her mother from who she truly was, a sad and lonely person. But when she laughed and smiled for the moment it was okay that she was lonely, for sometimes seeing others enjoy her company would bring her a moment's relief of happiness. But no matter how much she joked and played, the only person she ever wanted to see smile was the Dish, who had always been so distant.

Dish was a quiet girl, to herself, rarely smiled or laughed; there was always some greater mystery to her. Kat was captivated by this mystery and curiosity overcame her. She would watch from a distance waiting for the opportunity to encounter Dish directly. She tried hard for a long time, and finally one day Dish smiled and slowly more and more she would witness a sparkle of joy coming from her. She kept everyone of the Dish's laughs as a secret treasure.

Dish began to speak with her and open up more with her about things that some people might have considered trivial, but they were special to Kat, because she was the only one invited into this great and wondrous world that belonged to Dish. She was invited into a place where no one else had been allowed to enter and it was the most sincere happiness she had ever experienced in her life. Dish's face would be aglow with excitement and wonder as she pondered such things as desk lamps and their misplacement in the world. Each of these moments was a taste of something Kat had been searching for for a long time, someone to share a quiet existence with.

But she knew that despite Dish's acceptance of her there was a limit to how far Kat would be let in. Kat began to want more and more from Dish, to hold and be held by her, to feel the warmth from another living being, to actually care and be cared for by somebody else. She loved Dish, but Dish couldn't possibly love her the same way.

One day she grew the courage to tell her so, so she went over to confront her. But she noticed something odd in the giddiness that surrounded Dish. Her face was glowing but it wasn't because of Kat, it was something else. There was a lean boy talking and laughing along with Dish, she was so captivated by him that she didn't even notice Kat watching in the background. Kat took a deep breath and marched up to her friend with a great big smile. When the Spoon boy finally left, Kat turned to her friend with tears in her eyes. Dish was shocked to see the sudden change in atmosphere and even more so to witness her friend's glazed eyes.

"Is something wrong," she asked, honestly confused. There was something about her nonchalant attitude towards Kat that would always send stabs through her heart; it was even more painful knowing that she didn't mean it to be so. "No, everything is fine," she lied. She was used to this kind of lie; she used it so often to protect her mother and anyone else she had come close to caring about. She had hoped she wouldn't have had to revert to the same lie with Dish but she was apparently wrong. Dish did not love her in the same way.

Days passed, into weeks and months. The Spoon boy became a regular appearance, entering the Dish's private world as Kat slowly began to lose her place there. Kats grins grew wider, her jokes more lewd, her laughter much louder. Many had said it was the happiest they had ever seen Kat, but they were wrong, it was the saddest she had ever been.

Her mother, Cow, was oblivious to the whole ordeal, as Kat had worked so hard to ensure, but one day she stumbled upon some of Kats things and began to inquire further into her daughter's behavior. After much shouting and yelling and arguing, the truth about Kat came out and her mother was wroth with rage. Her brother Dog was laughing from his corner watching the seams of her carefully knit life unravel. Prodding here or there and saying things where they needn't be said, he jested and laughed louder and more cruelly than she had ever had. There was nothing Kat could do but escape the tension in her home and with nowhere to go she found herself at Dish's house.

Dish welcomed her in, but with the sort of nonchalant stab as to say, 'if you really must.' She told Dish what had happened and cried at her friend's porch. There was a long moments silence before Dish wrapped her arms around Kat and said, "I'm sorry." It was too much for Kat to take, all this held back emotion was overwhelming, "I Love You!" she cried out and wept onto Dish's shoulder. Then from the shadows of Dish's home she could see the Spoon boy emerge from Dish's bedroom. She pulled back from her friend in horror. "I'm sorry," Dish repeated, and Kat realized then that she had known the whole time.

"I'm moving in with him." It was all so sudden to Kat, but she had a feeling that it wasn't really all that sudden, that this was a plan that had been long in the making, that she was not a part of. "It's a long ways from here so we're leaving, actually, right now." Kat looked inside the house and noticed how empty it was with a few bags placed by the door. "You can stay here for the night." So Kat watched Dish leave with this, this spoon, not saying a word, but slowly falling apart inside. Dish never once looked back as they drove off into the night.

Since then she sat atop that empty house, every night despite the awful flux of weather, playing her sad tune. Even without singing, the words from her heart can be heard flowing through the strings:

"Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon."


End file.
